Kentucky Intestate Succession: Heirs, Shares, and Inheritance Tax

When a Kentucky resident dies without a valid will, Kentucky intestate succession decides who inherits. The state does not hand the surviving spouse a flat percentage of everything. Instead, it splits the estate into real property and personal property and applies a centuries-old dower-and-curtesy framework to each, then sends whatever the spouse does not take down a fixed line of relatives: children first, then parents, then siblings, then more distant kin.¹

When These Rules Apply

Intestate succession governs whenever someone dies without a will that validly covers all of their property. A will that only addresses real estate leaves the personal property to be distributed under the intestacy statutes. If a court throws out a will because the person lacked capacity or the document wasn’t properly witnessed, the estate also falls back to these default rules.²

One boundary matters before anyone reads further. Only probate property passes under the intestacy statutes. Assets held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, retirement accounts and life insurance with named beneficiaries, and property in a living trust move outside probate and are not touched by these rules. The statutes govern what is left: individually titled real estate, bank accounts in the decedent’s name alone, vehicles titled solely to the decedent, and similar assets with no built-in transfer mechanism.

What the Surviving Spouse Inherits

Kentucky uses the “dower and curtesy” framework to define the spouse’s share, which means the spouse’s inheritance is calculated separately for real property and personal property.¹

Real Estate

The surviving spouse takes full ownership of one-half of the surplus real estate the decedent owned at death. Surplus here means what is left after any secured debts against the property are paid. On top of that, the spouse gets a life estate in one-third of any real property the decedent owned during the marriage but no longer held at death. That second piece matters when, for example, the couple sold a family home years ago and bought elsewhere. The remaining half of the real estate drops down the hierarchy set out in KRS 391.010: children and their descendants first, then parents, then siblings.³

Personal Property

For bank accounts, vehicles, and household belongings, the surviving spouse receives an absolute one-half of the surplus after funeral costs, administration expenses, and debts are paid.¹ The other half follows the same hierarchy as real estate.

Kentucky also gives the surviving spouse a separate $30,000 personal property exemption under KRS 391.030. This amount is set aside before any distribution, exempt from creditor claims and sale. The spouse chooses which items make up the $30,000. If the total personal property is worth less than that threshold, the spouse may keep everything.⁴

When the Spouse Takes Everything

The spouse receives the entire estate only when there are no surviving children, parents, or siblings. Under KRS 391.010, the spouse ranks fourth in line for real estate, behind those three groups. When none of them exist, the spouse’s dower or curtesy share and the 391.010 share collapse into full ownership of everything.³

What the Children Inherit

If the decedent leaves children but no spouse, the children take the entire estate in equal shares.³ When both a spouse and children survive, the children divide what remains after the spouse’s dower and curtesy interest. For real estate, that means splitting the half the spouse did not receive. For personal property, they split the half of the surplus the spouse did not claim, after the $30,000 exemption has already been set aside.⁴

Kentucky distributes among descendants per stirpes. If one of the decedent’s children died first but left children of their own, those grandchildren step into their parent’s place and split that parent’s share. Two children of the decedent, one deceased with three surviving children of her own: the three grandchildren split their mother’s one-half among them, each receiving one-sixth of the children’s portion.⁵

When the decedent leaves no spouse, the $30,000 personal property exemption passes to the surviving children instead.⁴

Parents, Siblings, and More Distant Relatives

With no descendants, the estate moves up and out. Parents come next. Two surviving parents share equally; a single surviving parent takes the whole portion. After parents, the estate goes to the decedent’s brothers and sisters and their descendants.³

Half-blood relatives are treated differently. When a half-sibling inherits alongside whole-blood relatives or ascending kin, the half-blood share is half of the whole-blood share. A half-sister sharing an estate with a full brother would take half of what the brother receives.⁶

If no parents or siblings survive, Kentucky’s statutes keep working outward to grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and more remote kin. Only when no blood relative can be found at all does the estate escheat to the Commonwealth.

Who Counts as an Heir and Who Doesn’t

Adopted Children

Adopted children inherit exactly as biological children do. Once the adoption is final, the child is treated as if born to the adoptive parents for all inheritance purposes, and the legal tie to the biological parents is cut, which ends intestacy rights on that side. One exception: when a biological parent’s spouse adopts the child, the relationship with that biological parent continues.⁷

Stepchildren and Foster Children

Stepchildren and foster children who were never legally adopted receive nothing under Kentucky intestate succession. A stepparent who raised a child for decades but never completed a legal adoption leaves that child with no intestacy rights. The only path to an inheritance for a stepchild is a will or an adoption.

Posthumous Children

A child born to the decedent’s surviving spouse within ten months of the decedent’s death inherits as if the child had been alive when the parent died.⁸

The 120-Hour Survivorship Rule

An heir who dies within five days of the decedent is treated as having predeceased them unless clear and convincing evidence shows otherwise. The rule matters most in car accidents and similar events where family members die close together, and it prevents property from passing briefly through an heir who did not really survive.⁹

The Slayer Rule

Someone convicted of killing the decedent, or of a felony against a vulnerable adult decedent, forfeits all rights to the estate. This applies to spouses, heirs, will beneficiaries, joint tenants, and insurance beneficiaries. The forfeited share passes to the remaining takers as though the disqualified person did not exist.¹⁰

How the Estate Actually Gets Distributed

Because there is no will naming an executor, the district court in the county where the decedent lived appoints an administrator. Kentucky law prefers the surviving spouse for the job. If the spouse declines or does not nominate someone suitable, the court turns to whichever relative next in line for a share it considers best suited. If no family member comes forward within 60 days, a creditor or other person may be appointed.¹¹

Creditors then have six months from the administrator’s appointment to file claims. Anything not presented in that window is permanently barred. If no administrator is ever appointed, the deadline extends to two years from the death.¹² Debts, funeral costs, and taxes are paid before anything reaches the heirs. Only the surplus passes under the intestacy hierarchy.

Kentucky offers a shortcut for modest estates. When the decedent’s total personal property is $30,000 or less, the surviving spouse or children can petition the district court to dispense with formal administration entirely. The court can also dispense with administration when the estate’s value is equal to or less than the preferred claims against it, such as funeral expenses. The process uses a one-page form and avoids full probate.⁴

Kentucky Inheritance Tax on What Heirs Receive

Kentucky is one of a handful of states that still imposes an inheritance tax, and it applies whether or not there was a will. The tax falls on the person receiving the inheritance, and the rate depends on the recipient’s relationship to the decedent.¹³

Class A beneficiaries are spouses, parents, children, grandchildren, brothers, and sisters, including half-siblings. They are completely exempt from Kentucky inheritance tax.
Class B beneficiaries are nieces, nephews, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, aunts, uncles, and great-grandchildren. The first $1,000 is exempt, and rates run from 4% to 16% depending on the amount inherited.
Class C beneficiaries are everyone else, including unmarried partners, friends, and unrelated individuals. The first $500 is exempt, with rates from 6% to 16%.

When tax is owed, the return must be filed within 18 months of the decedent’s death. Interest and potential penalties begin accruing after that. If the entire estate passes to Class A beneficiaries and no federal estate tax return is required, an Affidavit of Exemption is enough and no inheritance tax return has to be filed with the Department of Revenue.¹⁴

1
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 392.020 – Surviving Spouse’s Interest in Property of Deceased Spouse
2
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes – Chapter 391
3
Justia. Kentucky Revised Statutes 391.010 – Descent of Real Estate
4
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 391.030 – Descent of Personal Property – Exemption for Surviving Spouse and Children
5
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 391.040 – Descendants of Distributees Take Per Stirpes
6
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 391.050 – Collaterals of the Halfblood – Inheritance By
7
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 199.520 – Judgment – Prerequisites – Orders – Name and Legal Status of Child
8
Justia. Kentucky Revised Statutes 391.070 – Posthumous Child – Inheritance By
9
Justia. Kentucky Revised Statutes 397.1002 – Requirement of Survival by One Hundred Twenty Hours
10
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 381.280 – Forfeiture of Right to Property for Killing or Victimizing Decedent
11
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 395.040 – Administrator – Persons Entitled to Be Appointed
12
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 396.011 – Presentation of Claims Against Estate – Time Limitations
13
Department of Revenue. A Guide to Kentucky Inheritance and Estate Taxes
14
Department of Revenue. Inheritance and Estate Tax